Legislation intended to derail a Southern Arizona tribe's plan to build a Las Vegas-style casino-hotel in a Phoenix suburb is on a fast track in the Arizona Legislature's 2-week-old session, with the full House scheduled to consider it Tuesday.

I don't understand how people who profess to represent me just decide to kick me in the teeth and watch me bleed? Sending a request to the President asking to waive the requirement for States to maintain eligibility for public health benefits is doing just that to me, and others like me.

The Arizona Legislature likely will start a special session on Wednesday so lawmakers can consider asking the federal government to allow Arizona to drastically reduce medical coverage for its residents.

Senate Minority Leader David Schapira is a young man with responsibilities usually associated with more seasoned politicians. As a leading representative of Democratic interests in the Capitol, his job is to persuade Republicans to listen to alternative solutions, whether about balancing the budget or fixing the economy, and to try to forge partnerships with some of them to pass or block legislation.

National politicking in the wake of the Jan. 8 mass shooting in Tucson has been plentiful, but the conversations ascribing blame or motive have been almost entirely absent in the halls and floors of the Arizona Legislature.

This week's unveiling of the birthright-citizenship legislation marked the beginning of the next crusade for illegal-immigration hawks and signaled a call to arms for Democrats. But it led business-friendly Republicans in the Arizona Legislature into a political minefield.